Breaking Ground

 We had beautiful weather for the second half of harvest.  We are all wrapped up and working on some tillage.  Despite the highest fuel prices I have ever paid, I still plan on doing quite a bit of tillage.  The double crop soybeans yielded 60 bushels per acre, the highest I have ever had!  My wheat/DC soybean acres were my most profitable this year.  I found a crack in the rockshaft of my disk ripper when I was greasing it one morning.  I had Sunrise Welding and Fabrication fix it for me and we are back in the field.  I'm glad I found it before something worse happened.

At the end of harvest last year, I had a motor go bad at the top of the auger that fills my dryer.  It went bad again this harvest also.  It took a couple of days to diagnose exactly what the problem was, but when we figured out the motor was bad, we were able to switch it out pretty quickly.  Fortunately the old motor was still under warranty.  The corn is dry and tucked away for winter.

I was able to get some wheat sown on time again this fall and it came up quickly with the help of the warm, mild weather.  I got a picture of it shortly after it came up with a rainbow in the background.

We spent a nice Sunday in Fairbury for church, lunch call, supper, and singing.  It was the 44th annual Illinois Potluck (covid year was skipped).  We first got invited back in the '80's and have attended most of them over the years.  There were three couples there that were at the original potluck in 1981!  Most of the Illinois churches are usually represented, and I always enjoy the varied fellowship.

We had our Metzger cousins reunion last summer in Lester.  We have lost six cousins since the reunion.  It makes us realize that we are all getting older.

We enjoyed the annual Schlipf wiener roast in Gridley again this year.  It was a beautiful fall evening to fellowship around a fire.  The grandkids always enjoy playing on the farm where their grandma grew up.

The Tazewell County Health Department sponsored a used tire disposal day.  Over the last year or so, I have been working on cleaning out our sheds and old buildings.  I found a lot of old tires that have been stored for years, and was hoping for an opportunity to get rid of them.  They allowed you to bring up to 20 tires, and I had 20 tires loaded on my pickup for them!  There are still more in the sheds, but that took a big dent out of the stash.

The Eureka Home is building a new Assisted Living building on the empty lot across the street from the home.  The researching, planning, and permitting phase has finally ended and we broke ground a couple of weeks ago.  Representative LaHood, Mayor Lind, Catalyst Construction reps, Administration, and Board members were present.  This may have been the first time I ever attended an official groundbreaking ceremony.  I even got to don a hard hat and man a golden shovel for a picture with the board.  It is exciting to see the years of work and all the meetings finally becoming a real physical project.  Hopefully in a little over a year we will be having a ribbon cutting ceremony for Walnut Crossing Assisted Living.  We pray for safety and protection for all involved during construction.

Mayor, Representative, Administrator, and Board President

 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.                                                        Hosea 10:12